Welcome to steadfast Baptist Church. It's good to see you all. Thanks for coming this evening
Let's find our seats and turn in our green handles to page two glory to his name page two in your hymn books
page two
Glory to his name
worship you and I pray that you just bless the service tonight, fill pastor
up with the Holy Spirit and then pray that we can glean from your word and
apply the message to our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Our second song
will be page 448. Brethren, we have met to worship, page 448. Brethren, we
have met to worship.
Page 448, Brethren, we have met to worship.
Amen, very good singing. If you did not already get a bulletin and you would like one of our bulletins
Just lift up your hand real quick and one of our ushers can come by and get you a bulletin
On the front we have our Bible memory passage Matthew 28. We're trying to memorize that entire chapter
Anyone who can quote the verse of the week?
It's 18 and under can get an ice cream treat after the service on the inside
We have our service times so winning times and church stats on the right
We have a list of our expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them upcoming events. We have a spring swap April 13
The Mansfield soul winning marathon is April 19th
Easter is April 20th this year, and we still have some special Easter invites if you'd like to invite anybody for our Easter services
There is a baby shower on the third and then also the Mother's Day brunch is
May 10th, so if you want to put those down some church reminders down below on the back
We have a note about the baby shower details.
It's for the Scott family and their baby boy,
which is very exciting.
It's gonna be from 12 to two.
And if you'd like to bring a dessert or dish to share,
that would be great.
You can get them a gift if you'd like.
They're registered on Amazon.
It is a nursing's only preferred.
So if you are able to attend, that would be great.
Down below we have our prayer list.
We'll go ahead and kind of
walk through our prayer list for a second.
We've been continuing to pray for the Naeem's grandmother,
for her vision and health and for salvation.
We've also been praying for the Carlson's mother
and father for their health.
Also praying for the Miller's friend,
her mother, who's struggling with cancer.
Continuing to pray for Brother Horace and Miss Grace
for their health and also praying for the Scott's health.
And then we're praying for Brother Garcia,
continue to pray for his health.
We're also praying for Ms. Goodwin's friend, Ms. Sarah.
She's also recovering.
We're praying for Brother Nick's mother
and co-worker for salvation on both of them.
Continue to pray for Miss Larky who's healing for a broken arm if you'd pray for
Brother Brad's father and sister for their health and then he's also asking for prayer for his work
And then if you'd pray for brother Diego's friend miss morris who also has some health issues
So we have several there that you can be in prayer for let's go ahead and just say a quick word of prayer as a church family
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for our church.
Thank you for all the ladies who are expecting.
I pray that you just help them with their pregnancies.
I pray that you could also just bless our church family
that is struggling with illness or sickness.
Please help them to recover and get back into church.
Also, those who've been praying for our family
and our friends, I pray that you could just give them
a miracle, that you could please just help them
with their health, please give them recovery.
Also, those that are needing the gospel,
I pray that you would soften their hearts,
that you would help them to be available and ready
and give an opportunity unto us
and give us the boldness to preach unto them,
bring a soul winner to them,
that'll give them the gospel.
I pray that you would also just continue
to bless our church with favor in their work
and all of their other requests.
Thank you so much for our church.
I pray that you would bless our upcoming events
and our Easter services.
We thank you for all you give us.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
That's all we have as far as announcements. We're gonna seeing our psalm of the week, which is psalm
117 it's in our psalm binders. So it's actually in the black binders right in front of you
psalm
117 it's our special psalm binders
Psalm 117
page Psalm 117 on the 1st.
Glory!
can turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 16, Matthew chapter 16.
Matthew 16, the Bible Reads.
The Pharisees also, with the Sadducees, came, and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven.
He answered and said unto them, When it is evening ye say it will be fair weather for the sky is red,
and in the morning it will be foul weather today for the sky is red and lowering.
O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
Awaken adulterous generations, seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet, Jonas.
and he left them and departed. And when his disciples were come to the other side,
they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them,
take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith,
why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five lobes of the five thousand,
Neither the seven loaves of the 4,000 and how many baskets ye took up?
How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread that you should be aware of the
Leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
Then understood they how that he bade them not be aware of the Leaven of bread
But of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees when Jesus came into the coast of Caesaree
Philippi he asked his disciples saying whom do men say that I the son of man am?
and they said, some say thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah's or one of the
prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus answered and said unto him,
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but
my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock
I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give
unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall
be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
then charted his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised
again the third day. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord,
this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art in
For thou savers not the things that be of God but those that be of men then said Jesus unto disciples if any man will come
After me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life shall lose it
And whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world
And lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul
For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his fathers with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
Barely I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this church.
Thank you for allowing us to come here.
I just pray that you'd bless Pastor Shelley, fill him with your Holy Spirit, to preach unto us your word, and help us to receive your word, Lord, with an open heart, and apply it to our lives.
Spray us in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen.
Verse one is really key to understanding this chapter.
It says, the Pharisees also with the Sadducees came
and tempting desired him that he would show them
a sign from heaven.
So the chapter sets up with the Pharisees coming to Jesus
and they want a sign and they want a sign from heaven.
Now, really, if you kind of get the idea here,
the Pharisees don't want to just believe
what Jesus is saying.
They want a sign.
They want something to prove that what he's saying is true.
But if you had proof, then it wouldn't be faith.
Faith is putting your trust in something that you can't see.
It's the evidence of things not seen according to the book of Hebrews.
And so you can't have faith and sight.
If you had sight, then you don't need faith.
And God is not pleased if we just believe things that are obvious.
He wants us to believe things through faith.
The Bible does not ask us to have blind faith.
Blind faith is where you make something up and believe it.
The Bible never asks you to do that.
The Bible wants you to believe what the text says, what Jesus says.
So we're not just blindly believing things.
We're trusting what Jesus has told us
and what the Bible tells us.
That's the kind of faith that we're supposed to have.
And of course, the Bible rebukes those
who do not have faith, those who need a sign
or seek after a sign.
And that's what he's gonna bring up here
in the next passages.
But that's really key to understanding this chapter
and the point that's really being driven in tonight.
He says in verse 2, and he answered and said to them,
When it is evening, you say it will be fair weather,
for the sky is red, and in the morning it will be foul weather today.
For the sky is red and lowering, and O ye hypocrites,
ye can discern the face of the sky,
but ye cannot discern the signs of the times.
O wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
and there shall no sign be given unto it,
but the sign of the prophet Jonas,
and he left them and departed.
So he kind of rebukes the Pharisees and saying there's plenty of things that you don't know for certain that you believe wholeheartedly.
You see a particular weather pattern and it helps you identify what's a very likely outcome as far as the weather for the day.
They can tell by the sky, oh, it's going to be a fair weather day-to-day or, oh, it's actually going to be gloomy or clouds or there's going to be a storm approaching.
they do sometimes give us an indication of what weather patterns we're going to see
and they're not perfect but when we're talking about the exact same day they're often usually
pretty accurate when they're talking about just in a 24-hour period of time because mankind
can rely upon God's weather systems and being pretty predictable based on certain criteria
and that's what he's bringing up and in fact what Jesus is saying is still used today by people
Maybe they look at the sky and they can kind of tell,
oh, there's storms ahead or there's not storms ahead.
And what Jesus said is true,
carnally speaking, that you can discern the face of the sky,
that you can look at the weather kind of in the future,
what it's going to be like,
and it's very predictable it's going to happen.
But he rebukes them saying,
you don't know for sure that's happening,
but you just trust it's going to happen.
Yet you can't trust what I'm saying.
You can't.
figure out the time that we're in
and the signs of the times of right now.
And it's not like he hasn't given some signs.
He's preaching the gospel.
He's getting people saved.
Of course, people are getting baptized.
People are being healed.
He's doing all kinds of miracles.
There's been a lot of stuff that he's done,
but now they just want like over the top proof.
They want some special gifted sign for them
to come down from heaven.
Because while many people were were healed not everybody was healed
You know, for some people, they got a personal miracle.
There are some people in the Bible that they were blind
and then they got to see.
There were some people that were lame and they got to walk.
So for them, they have a personal miracle.
They had a personal sign.
It's like the Pharisees want their own kind of personal sign here.
They want some special thing to happen.
Okay, now we'll believe you.
But the reality is that even if you gave them that sign,
they still wouldn't believe.
And you see this pattern in the Bible where many people that are very wicked, it doesn't matter how much you prove things or how much you show them things, they just won't believe in the Word of God, they won't trust God, they won't have faith in God.
And we need to make sure that we're not like these people that we actually believe.
Now there's a punishment when you don't believe God's Word.
Go to Luke chapter one.
I want to look at a couple examples of this.
We should not be people that seek after a sign.
We need to just believe the Bible.
And you kind of see this in Hollywood and movies and even many churches today,
where they almost tell you to ask God for a sign.
Or I'm looking for a sign to finally do what the Bible says.
No, no, no, you just do what the Bible says.
You shouldn't be waiting for God to prove to you why you're on the right path.
You just do what the Bible says. That's the only thing you need.
And when you won't do what the Bible says,
well, many times God might even punish you
as the sign you're hoping for.
Hey, you want a sign?
Okay, I'll give you a sign.
Now, look what it says in verse 11.
And there appeared on him talking about Zacharias,
an angel of the Lord standing on the right side
of the altar of incense.
And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said unto them, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name, John.
And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
and he should go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers of the children
and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
And Zechariah said under the angel,
whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man
and my wife well stricken in ears. So Zechariah is told by this angel all this great stuff about his wife's going to have this child.
His name is going to be John. He is going to be in the power of Elias.
And what is his immediate reaction?
It's not like, well, that's awesome news.
This is great.
This is exciting.
He basically just doubts.
He says, whereby shall I know?
He says, this isn't gonna happen.
I'm old, this isn't gonna happen.
My wife is well stricken in years.
He's basically just not believing him
that this is even possible.
Verse 19 of the angel answering said in him,
I am Gabriel that stand the presence of God
and I am sent to speak unto thee
and to show thee these glad tidings.
Notice glad, this is good news.
They've been wanting a child, they've been barren.
An angel of God shows up and says,
you're gonna have a child and not just any child,
the greatest man born among women.
Someone going out in the power of Elias and he doubts he doesn't believe.
Verse 20,
So notice Zechariahs,
which according to the text is actually a great guy.
Let's go back to verse six.
It's talking about him and his wife,
and they were both righteous before God,
walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord,
blameless.
That's extreme, the Bible is saying that Zechariahs and Elizabeth were amazing Christians, dedicated
servants of God, blameless in the commandments of God, that doesn't mean that they were sinless.
What it means is that whenever they did something wrong,
they always offered the perfect sacrifice.
They were in right standing with God.
There was no obvious issue in their life.
They weren't guilty of some major sin in their life.
They were generally blameless
and they had a good reputation.
They were right with God.
They were doing that, which was right with God.
And for the most part,
they just were not doing anything wrong.
If they did, they would have offered the immediate sacrifice
or gotten right with God and confessed their sin.
Notice even he even this like super righteous godly guy doubts the word of God
Doubts the word of the Lord and as a result gets punished with dumbness now dumbness is not being what we think of is not intelligent
It's about not being able to speak
If someone can't speak, they can sometimes refer to as dumb.
The Bible talks about in the Old Testament, a dumb ass speaking.
And people use that as an insult, but that's not what the Bible is talking about.
It's talking about how an animal can't speak human language.
And that's why it calls it dumb.
Okay, and ass is a word for donkey, and so it's a silent donkey would be like an alternative that you could save for that
And in the same way John has become silent because he's not able to speak
And it's a punishment for not believing the word of God and here's here's just a clue
If you don't do what God says often you don't have anything to say
And when you won't do what God says, he won't give you anything to say.
You know, the Word of God is what gives us something to say and it's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And boy, you need to get plugged into the things of God, but notice you get punished when you don't believe.
Now, in a sense, he almost gives him a sign. Here's your sign.
Now you're going to be punished with not being able to speak until he ends up naming his child later and then his mouth open and then he's able to speak.
What should have Zechariah's done he should have just believed the Lord
Don't doubt the word of God and don't ask for a sign now. I want to show you another passage go to Numbers chapter 16
Let me go do another passage. We need to discern this the signs of the times the Zechariahs should have discerned
This is an angel the Lord. I'm not gonna doubt his word
Now for us, I don't believe that angels are showing up and giving us these special words.
We have the Word of God.
But when we read something in the Bible, we should not doubt it.
We should not ask God to give some special sign to confirm it.
We need to just accept it and believe it right away.
This is what's crazy sometimes God though will give people signs and then they still reject them
And I think this story is important to illustrate
How a wicked and adulterous generation seek it after a sign and then even when they get it
They still reject the sign that's been given unto them
number 16 is a story where Korra
rebels against Moses and he attacks the leadership
He comes out of nowhere and Moses rebukes him saying,
man, you're of the children of Israel.
You're of the Levites.
You're basically like the top of the top,
but you're just not in the priesthood
and he's not content.
And it would be like somebody being like an American
that lives in Texas, that gets to go to the new IFB,
gets to go to Steadfast, that's in leadership,
but they're just not the pastor.
And it's just like, man, I mean,
you've got a great thing going for you.
But then you just can't even be content
getting to serve in a really good church.
You have to be the top guy for some reason.
You know, that's the wrong attitude.
I mean, think about how much of a low position
God could put you in,
and then you're already in such a great position
and then you have to just be discontent
and envy something that God doesn't want to give you.
And that's what core is like.
Core wants to lift himself up.
He wants to basically be put in the position of authority.
And then he projects that on the Moses
and says, you lift yourselves up.
above the congregation, whereas Moses did not.
Moses is a humble and a meek guy.
Now, in response to all these accusations,
in response to core rebelling against him,
this is what Moses says, and look at verse 15,
this really sticks out to me,
and Moses was very wroth.
That's angry Moses is very angry at these people and he said to the Lord respect not thou their offering
I have not taken one ass from them neither have I hurt one of them
So Moses is saying I've never done anything bad to these people
I haven't hurt them in any way and you know what don't respect their offering don't do any good under them
He's basically cursing them now if you skip a little bit further into the story verse 23
It says in the Lord spake unto Moses saying speak unto the congregation saying get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah
Dathan and a byram and Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and a byram and the elders of Israel followed him
And he spake unto the congregation saying depart. I pray you from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs
Lest he be consumed in all their sins. Here's another thing. God sometimes tell you to get away from people
Now, again, this is what, you know, haters will say,
oh, you guys are a cult because you tell us
to get away from people.
But you know what?
Then you're gonna accuse God of being a cult leader
because God tells us to get away from people.
You know, it's not my opinion
that you should get away from people.
It's God's opinion that you should get away from people.
It's not Moses' opinion that you should get away
from these people.
It's God's opinion that you should get away from these people.
Also, there's nothing wrong with defending yourself
and saying, hey, I didn't do anything wrong.
I mean, Moses point blank just says I didn't do anything wrong to these people.
I've only done good under them.
Therefore, God don't respect their offering.
God says get away from these people.
Okay, they're wicked.
Depart from you these wicked men.
Don't even touch anything of theirs.
Notice why, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.
We don't even know what their sins are.
The Bible has never even mentioned anything.
But let me tell you something.
These type of wicked people,
there's always something behind the closed doors
that we don't know about.
So they got up from the tabernacle of Korah,
dath in the byram on every side,
and dath in the byram came out
and stood in the door of their tents,
and their wives, and their sons,
and their little children.
Notice that when you sin, it doesn't just affect you.
Isn't that sad?
And it is sad, but you know what?
Stay away from the whole family.
It's not my fault.
And notice, you know, men need to be very careful
how they behave themselves,
because sometimes it affects their entire family.
And is that fair?
No, but it's also reality.
It does happen.
Men affect their wives and their children's lives.
And Moses said, hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things,
these works, for I have not done them of my own mind.
So they're questioning, should we believe Moses?
Sounds familiar to what's happening with Jesus.
Should we believe Jesus or not?
Should we believe Moses or not?
Who's the real man of God here?
Who's the right person in this situation?
We have a conflict.
How do we know who to believe?
When Moses is saying like, hey, you're going to find out.
All right, I'll give you a sign you want to sign and look this is not a sign came from Moses
This is not of his own mind
He didn't he didn't do this of what he wanted verse 29
if these men die the common death of all men or if they be visited at the
Visitation of all men then the Lord have not sent me
but if the Lord make a new thing and the earth open her mouth and
Swallow them up with all that appertaining to them and they go down quick into the pit then you shall understand
that these men have provoked the Lord.
And it came to pass as he had made an end
of speaking all these words,
that the ground clave asunder that was under them,
and the earth opened their mouth and swallowed them up
and their houses, and all the men
that have pertained to Nicorah, and all their goods.
They, and all that have pertained to them,
went down alive into the pit,
and the earth closed upon them,
and they perished from among the congregation.
So imagine this group of rebellious people,
they rebel against the leader, they're attacking the leader,
and then Moses says, all right, if I'm of God,
then God's gonna do something special.
He's just gonna open the ground
and all of them are gonna just go straight down into hell.
And then as soon as he says that, the earth opens up
and they all go straight down into hell
and then it just closes up again.
And he says this is a new thing,
this is something that no one's ever seen before, brand new.
This just happened.
Do you think you would be like,
I think Moses is right?
Like whose side do you really want to be on?
After you just watch the earth open up and swallow
these guys and they went straight down into hell.
Like if you're asking, can I have a sign from heaven?
I mean, could you have much better of a sign
than a literal just earth opening up
and just swallowing them down
and then just being destroyed right before your eyes?
Notice what he even said in verse 30,
then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.
You should have figured it out when you saw this,
that these guys were wicked,
that there's something wrong here with them and what they did.
If they were really the men of God, why would God just open up the earth
and just cause them to perish for no reason?
He obviously did it because they're wicked and evil
and they're being punished as a result.
But this is where it gets weird.
But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron saying you have killed the people of the Lord
What in the world like how how did they come to that conclusion?
It's like they literally just saw
Hundreds of people die right before them go straight into hell and then they're just like you guys killed the people the Lord
They're the people of Satan
Even if they were the people of the Lord, they're not.
But even if they were, they were still wicked.
I mean, at best case, they're evil people of the Lord.
But they're not, it's a false claim.
Isn't it so weird?
They're like, oh, and Moses did it.
Moses didn't even do anything.
Moses actually was warning people
and saved people from going down into the hole.
Moses had no control over the situation.
They attacked Moses and then God says to Moses,
tell them to get away from these people.
And he's like, hey, get away from these people
because the earth's gonna open up
and they're all gonna die.
And then people got away
and they were literally saved from those people.
And then they attacked Moses.
It's like, Moses didn't do anything.
Moses was warning you about the problem with these people
and trying to keep you safe
and keep you from being destroyed with them,
being harmed with them.
And in the same way, it's just crazy to me
how people can just see this kind of stuff
and then they don't get it.
Look at verse 42,
and it came to pass when the congregation
was gathered against Moses, against Aaron,
that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation
and behold, the cloud covered it
and the glory of the Lord appeared.
And Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle
of the congregation and the Lord spake on a Moses saying,
get you up from among this congregation
that I may consume them as in a moment.
And they fell upon their faces and Moses said unto Aaron,
take a censer and put fire there and from off the altar
and put on incense and go quickly under the congregation
and make an atonement for them.
For there is wrath gone out from the Lord,
the plague is begun.
And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran in the midst of the congregation and behold the plague was begun among the people and he put on incense and made an atonement for the people and he stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stayed.
Now they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred beside them that died about the matter of Korah.
And Aaron returned unto Moses and endured the attack on the congregation and the plague was stayed.
Now this is what's crazy.
and he does it in such a unique special way
that everybody should have gotten the message.
They still don't believe after they got the sign.
And then what did God have to do?
Then God had to pour out wrath and a plague on the people
and killed another 14,000 people.
And the only thing stopping it was Moses and Aaron,
you know, going there and actually praying for them
and standing in the gap so that more wouldn't have died.
Isn't it just crazy they attack Moses and Aaron Aaron and Moses actually saved them the first time
Saved them the second time and they still don't get it. They still don't appreciate it
They still murmur against them and you know what that's just what Christian ministry is like
You do good unto people and they attack you for no reason
Then you do good unto people and they get destroyed by God and then people complain about the people destroyed by God
And then God destroys them. You know what maybe you should just wake up and realize you shouldn't attack the people of God
You know what, you don't need a sign, you just need the Word of God.
You just need what the Bible says about not rebuking elders
and not attacking churches and not going against the people of God.
That's all you needed.
But then what God just gives you, sign after sign after sign,
you have to be a special kind of stupid to then just keep attacking the people of God.
But you know what? There is a special kind of stupid out there where people just keep
attacking us and our friends and I'm just thinking like what is wrong with your brain?
I mean there is so many people that have attacked us and God has performed a quora on them and
I'm thinking like how many more quoras do you need? You must be in a wicked and adulterous
generation because you're looking for a sign and God keeps giving it to you and you still
I mean, let's talk about Todd Ferguson.
Some guy attacks us out of nowhere
and then just goes into an alley and dies.
Yeah, he died.
I had nothing to do with it.
None of us had anything to do with it.
None of us killed the people of the Lord.
This guy's just dead because he attacked the word of God
and he attacked Christians
and he tried to shut down a soul winning conference.
I mean, the guy's evil, wicked, slanderous.
You know, it doesn't, oh, it's a coincidence.
It's not a coincidence.
How about this guy, Tyler Doka?
There's this guy who pretended to be like us
and then God just cursed his brain
to where he thought he was literally Jesus.
I mean, at first he just was a flat earther.
That was enough of a punishment.
But then the guy became a special kind of dumb
where he believed he was Jesus.
He believed he was Jesus so much,
he tattooed Alpha and Omega on his face.
He has on his face forever alpha and omega
What what a wicked antichrist talk about a punishment?
Of course his wife left him and divorced him and dropped him like a bad habit and he lost his entire church
And now he just rides motorcycles or something
Idiot just a waiting hell
Just a special kind of curse and punishment for attacking the people of God and being a liar
There's a guy that attacked pastor Anderson and lied about him and falsely committed him into a minstrel institution
And now that same guy has been in the minstrel institution for weeks
To and not in any kind of revenge plot just simply because he's literally crazy
Yeah, and it's like an exact story of Daniel and the lion's den if you've ever read Daniel the lion's den
The evil people that hated Daniel. They actually got him in the lion's den
for a short period of time, just for like a day.
But he came out unscathed.
But then they and all their families
got thrown in the lion's den
and they got destroyed and they ate all their bones even,
the Bible says.
You don't just mess with the people of God
and get away with it.
Now look, you can mess with the people of God a little bit.
God will sometimes allow you to put Daniel in the lion's den
but then they come out unscathed
and then you come back in.
Hey, you can take our money
but then God will take your health.
There's some people that attacked us and did evil into us and now they're just being cursed of God
There's a specific guy that's just being evilly attacked by God, and I don't know exactly what's going on
With him, but it's awful
No matter how you slice it this guy his skin is just like being destroyed
And I don't know why or what's happening, but there was a news article. I read yesterday like just came out
they were trying to calculate the odds of this guy's disease and they said the
odds of anybody ever contracting the disease that this guy got for all time
is one and seventeen and a half trillion I don't know how they came with that
number but they're just saying like the odds of anybody ever getting this is so
chance that someone ever get exactly what this person has gotten.
Okay, I just think that's a coincidence.
No, no, you know what you call that?
A new thing.
You know what you call that?
A sign from heaven.
Hey, that's not a coincidence.
It's interesting how many of these coincidences just keep happening, right?
You know, there was a guy that just
Evilly attacked our church was always protesting it showing up showing up at my house showing up at
Pastor Oz's house showing up at our church members houses just this weirdo freak
And you know what he doesn't show up anymore because he keeps getting arrested
He's just constantly being arrested constantly being afflicted horrible things happening to him
You know there was and not everything's just like a complete, you know
Death destruction, but God will curse you and punish you in so many ways
evangelist fur
Worked for us and you know up in Oklahoma City was preaching one of his sermons got attention and
It caused somebody at his his workplace to notice his boss
So they call him in and they just fire him for what he preached
And it wasn't even, for my memory, it wasn't even that hot.
It wasn't like, you know, it wasn't even like Romans one,
you know, line them all against the wall
and shoot them in the back of the head or something.
It wasn't even that.
It was mild in comparison to that, okay?
Just fired for preaching the word of God,
preaching the Bible, being associated
with Steadfast Baptist Church.
Well, after he gets fired,
his company hires someone else to replace him.
And the person who replaces him
gets an email from a scam artist.
to wire like $100,000.
And this new employee just wires the $100,000
to this scam artist.
Then they have someone audit them or something,
and they end up having to pay a whole bunch of fees
on all bunch of stuff that they've done wrong
as a company now.
And then they even had to hire an evangelist fur
on the DL to come in and fix.
So they're still paying him for his job, right?
And then his boss tells him, direct quote,
I think that your God is punishing us.
Yeah, it's called a sign.
But you know what, get saved, right?
Don't just see such an obvious sign
and then do nothing about it.
And you know, if you get persecuted for the cause of Christ,
it's not going to be good in the moment.
It'll be rough in the moment, bad things will happen.
But you know what, ask evangelist for if he regrets anything right now.
Ask him if his life's gone down or up since then.
You know, there's been other people I know,
there was at least one other person in our church
got fired for their job, you know,
for preaching or being associated with our church
and they're doing great.
So, you know, don't think like,
oh man, I'm afraid of what God will take away from me.
You should be afraid of what God will do to you.
There was a pastor that was in the new IVB in our movement
and just decided to just,
For no reason, just start preaching against me
and Pastor Anderson, calling us out,
screaming at the top of his lungs
how everything we did was stupid.
I'm like, I don't even know why.
And then just calling the new IFB just this prideful,
you know, jerk club, and you have to have a special
new IFB members only jacket to be in the club.
And I was thinking like, man,
I want to get one of those jackets.
saying like, oh, I think that every kid in the old IB
is better than every kid in the new IB.
So give me the worst kid in the old IB
and I'd take them over the best kid in the new IB.
I mean, just extreme, just extreme statements like that
that are obviously not true,
just meant to be mean, spirited, rail, just attack.
And just say, I don't want anything to do
with these type of people.
And it's like, where are you now?
Oh, your church is gone. You're doing nothing. You're not accomplishing anything.
Having a pretty good-sized church, thriving it in the past, now it's just gone.
And I'm just thinking like, when will people wake up and realize,
hey, stop attacking churches that are doing something for God?
Like if you don't like us, okay move on if you don't want anything to do with us go serve God on your own
But you know what don't attack the people of God
And I'm just thinking like how many signs does God have to give you for you to wake up
Do you want to be like Zechra and look it's not just like oh well?
I'm a pretty good Christian God wouldn't do that to me. Oh, yeah, Zacharias got punished. He was the greatest Christian
He was blameless, but you know what you don't believe the word of God
You just go against the things of God you get obvious signs and you just say ah Clint says Clint's cuz you know what?
God will then have to punish you for you to get the message and
A wicked and adulterous generation seeking after a sign. I'm not looking for a sign. I just believe that I want to believe this
I want to just say Lord. I saw it in the Word of God, and I believe it
I don't need to see it for my eyes to believe it because many people that say I need to see it
They don't even end up believing it when they see it
Now of course if God does give you a sign you better believe it go back to Matthew chapter 16
I'm praying for some of these signs. I'm praying for these skin diseases to turn into just death six feet under you
room temperature
challenge or whatever it's called
and
I believe it will happen
and
And not just to them to lots of these people look I would be terrified if I have attacked
a God-fearing church.
If I've done evil into a soul-winning church,
I would beg for their forgiveness right now.
Even if I never wanted to have anything to do with them,
I would be begging for their forgiveness.
And we're going to learn some more about that in this chapter,
but you should not be going against the things of God.
It's a bad move.
Verse 5,
Then Jesus said unto them take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees
So he's done a lot of these miracles
He gave them bread and of course everything that that Jesus is doing often has a gospel
Parallel he was giving them this bread and it sustains them
He's the bread of life and he doesn't they don't really get it this leaven
that he's talking about with the Pharisees.
He's talking about doctrine, and he explains that later.
But for some reason, the disciples are always
thinking about things carnally.
They're always thinking about things
from a practical perspective.
We need to look at the Bible as not just giving practical wisdom,
but having a spiritual truth associated with it.
One of the spiritual truths that we already read, verse 4,
it says, but the sign of the prophet Jonas was given.
You know, what was the sign of the prophet Jonas?
Well, he was three days and three nights in the Welles Belly.
So shall the Son of man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth.
So in the same way that Jonah went into the Welles Belly
for three days, Jesus had the death bear on resurrection.
And the only sign he's really giving them publicly
is the gospel.
But of course, the Jews get that message
and they didn't believe it, did they?
They have these Roman soldiers coming up to them saying basically that he resurrected and the stone was rolled away and they pay money to not believe that sign.
To not believe the resurrection. They had ever reason to believe the resurrection. They saw people being healed before them.
They saw people coming back to life. Lazarus came back to life and they were afraid that people were actually going to believe the gospel because of it.
Why? Because he came back to life.
It's like how can you deny this miracle?
How can you deny this this person that was born blind and dumb and couldn't walk is now walking and talking?
How they can't deny those miracles they can't deny those signs yet. They did anyways didn't they?
Just like Pharaoh, he just sees miracle after miracle after miracle, and he just refuses to believe that there's a spiritual connection.
And you know what? The unsaved will just never make the spiritual connection.
They want to stay in the carnal, believe it's always a coincidence, all the way into their death.
And we need to be spiritual people that we look at the Bible and we see the spiritual connection.
Hey, just as Jonas was in the Welles belly for three days and three nights,
that's like Jesus' death bearer on resurrection.
We believe the gospel. We believe the gospel by faith.
We didn't see it. We didn't hear it. We just believe in the resurrection because that's what the Bible says.
Now, of course, all of reality and all of our world confirm these things to be true.
everything, history, texts, our world, the year that we're in,
2025, all of it points to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But you know what, I believe it because of what the Bible says.
And we need to believe things because of what the Bible says.
Whereas the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they don't believe the Bible,
they have false doctrine and that little bit of leaven
will just corrupt your mind to where you believe anything.
And you can see people just get a little bit of leaven
and then pretty soon they're changing the name of their church.
They start out as Valiant Baptist Church and then now we don't even know what they are anymore.
They're just changing the name, changing the doctrine.
Used to preach against Calvinism, now they're a Calvinist.
You used to preach against the trinity, now they have a Catholic trinity.
You know, they just switch on a dime, just switch to anything and everything
because they have no real conviction, no real beliefs.
They're unsaved, they're carried about of wins, of doctrine.
And you know what, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they're always believing weird stuff,
nonsensical stuff because they're not actually rooted, they're not saved.
And we couldn't possibly be carried away with their false doctrine.
Why would he tell us to take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees if say people can't get mixed up in this stuff?
They can't that's why we need to avoid that and and and market and call it out
You know a lot of preaching we do is against other doctrines
Because we don't want you to go down a road of false doctrine. Don't think that you've arrived
Realize we're all susceptible to error
Heresy an issue we need to be careful that we don't allow ourselves to
to be entrapped with this false doctrine.
It says in verse 7,
and they reason among themselves saying,
it is because we have taken no bread.
Which, when Jesus perceived,
he said to them, oh, you have little faith.
Why reason ye among yourselves?
Because ye have brought no bread.
Do you not yet understand, neither remember,
the five loaves of the 5,000
and how many baskets ye took up?
Neither the seven loaves of the 4,000
and how many baskets ye took up?
How is it that ye do not understand
that I spake it not to you concerning bread
that ye should beware of the 11
of the Pharisees and the Sadducees?
Then understood they how he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread,
but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
So he kind of had to explain it to them again.
And it's kind of funny, it's thinking like,
you showed up with a few pieces of bread and fed 5,000.
Then you showed up again with a few pieces of bread, fed 4,000.
And it's like, now they're afraid that they didn't bring enough bread with them?
It's like, why would you be worried about that?
He already took care of you.
multiple times where he didn't even matter how much it was.
So it's like, that's obviously not what I'm saying.
And here's an interpretation tip.
When it's not possible to be understood carnally,
you're probably wrong about it.
You know, it's like, hey, if he did this miracle
of 5,000 and 4,000, it doesn't make logical sense
to think that he was worried about bread.
So that must be a wrong interpretation.
When your reality and the Bible denies your interpretation you need to get a new interpretation
Yes, you need to make sure that it matches and it's consistent with the Bible itself and it's consistent with your reality
Okay, so we need to make sure that we have good interpretations of the Bible
Now it says in verse 13 when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi
He asks his disciples saying who do men say that I the Son of man am?
And they said some say that thou art John the Baptist,
some Elias, and others Jeremiah's,
or one of the prophets.
He sayeth unto them, but whom say ye that I am?
Now, a lot of things we can talk about.
I just want to make a couple of mentions here.
Notice that even Jesus Christ himself
doesn't even get credit for being himself.
You know, it doesn't matter who you are.
People are just going to accuse you of imitating somebody
or being like somebody else.
You know, even Jesus doesn't get to be Jesus.
Jesus is John the Baptist or Elijah or somebody.
You know, and again, those are great people to be,
but they're not even as good as Jesus, you know?
And it's not like he's that offended by it.
But at the end of the day, many times,
you're never gonna really get the recognition
that you deserve.
People are gonna just say you're imitating other people.
You're just trying to be like other people.
But you know what?
If I'm gonna be like somebody, think about this.
It'd be great to be called,
oh, this guy's like John the Baptist.
I'd be like, great.
You know this guy's like Elijah this guy's like Jeremiah be like yeah, it's a lot better than like this guy's like Joel Osteen. I'm like, oh man
This guy this guy's like Mark Ward I will quit immediately
Okay, I'm like that guy, you know, it's just like it's good if they're saying like oh man, you're like this awesome pastor
You'll be like thanks. That's great. I'm glad it's like this guy's the most like that guy
I mean think about it like you're the most like John the Baptist of any people you'd be like awesome
Keep the compliments coming I mean that's not a bad thing think about in any other context
Oh, you're just like Michael Jordan. Oh, man. What a terrible, you know comment that is. Oh, man
You're just like this awesome singer or you you know, you sound like Frank Sinatra when you sing it'd be like cool
In fact most great singers, you know what they do they practice trying to sound exactly like another great singer of the past
Cason Point, Frank Sinatra, and Michael Buble.
Michael Buble is a Canadian,
so that's why he's not quite as good as Frank Sinatra.
I'm just kidding.
But he practiced to try and sound exactly like Frank Sinatra
over and over and over,
and then that's how he has his sound.
And he sounds very similar to him.
But there's nothing wrong with emulating somebody
that's really good and really successful at something.
Hey, if you're like John the Baptist, praise God.
Oh man, you must be just like Jesus Christ.
Great. I mean, wouldn't that be a compliment?
If someone is saying that.
So don't be afraid if people are trying to say,
oh, you're like this other really good person.
It's like, great.
Don't be discouraged by that.
Don't think that there's anything wrong with that.
Don't allow people to intimidate you to stop
trying to be like good people.
Just keep trying to do the right thing.
Follow Paul as he follows Christ.
You know, this is the other thing I would like to say.
There's always a lot of confusion about people too.
Notice there's not a unified decision about who Jesus is.
There's all kinds of different opinions.
But you know what?
They're all wrong.
There's only one opinion that's right.
And who cares what the multitude says?
Who cares what everybody else is saying?
What's the right thing?
Hey, what do you say?
Right, isn't he saying?
Verse 15, he says in them,
but whom say ye that I am?
Hey, everybody says all this other stuff,
but who cares what they're saying?
What do you say?
What do you have to say?
And Simon Peter answered and said,
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.
You're not John the Baptist.
You're the son of God.
You're not Elijah.
You're the son of God.
You're not just a random guy.
You're not just the carpenter's son.
You're not just a carpenter yourself.
You're not just the son of Mary.
You're the son of God.
That's what he said.
Hey, what do you think I am?
You're the son of God.
And you know what? That's what our religion is built on is that Jesus Christ was the Son of the Living God.
Our religion is built on that doctrinal belief.
Why are the Pharisees unsake? They don't believe that.
Why are the Sadducees not saved?
Because they're weirdos and they don't believe that, alright?
It says in verse 17,
in Jesus' answer and said in Him,
blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah,
for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven.
So notice that this understanding
is a spiritual understanding of who Jesus Christ was.
Notice what his name is, Simon Bar Jonah.
Now the word bar in Hebrew is son of.
So you'll see a lot of Bar, like Bar Jesus, Bar Jonah, Bar, you know, anything, it's just
basically Son of, and a lot of them would have that as a surname is Bar.
So he's the Son of Jonah.
It's Simon, the Son of Jonah.
Now he says in verse 18, and I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter.
And upon this rock, I will build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,
and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loose in heaven."
Now there's a lot of controversy on these two verses.
But, I just think, you know, if you just allow the text to just say what it means, it really
means it.
It's not like we have to go to some exotic way to try and interpret this passage.
And I think this is the contention, the Catholics will use verse 18 to justify their entire
religion.
They'll say Peter was the first pope and he was the one that started our church and so that's where we get our start
Our lineage our authority and blah blah blah, but you know what?
That's just like someone saying why I think Jesus is John the Baptist who cares what they say. What do you say?
Okay, now
That in an attempt to try and not be Catholic or be anti Catholic
I think people go a little bit too extreme in this passage and they'll say like everything Jesus said had nothing to do with Peter
and it only had to do with Christ.
And I don't agree with that.
I don't think it's only about Peter
and I don't think it's only about Christ.
I think it's a dual understanding
which a lot of the Bible does.
It has dual understanding.
He is talking about Peter, but then there's another understanding, there's another layer here.
Obviously, the truth that the church is built upon, a rock that is built upon, is the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
That's a rock that could be built upon.
Jesus Christ has also just declared the rock in many places in the Bible.
I mean, it's crystal clear that Jesus Christ is the rock in the Bible over and over and over again.
But I also believe that the Bible demonstrates that Peter is also the rock.
Okay, and I want to prove that in a lot of different ways, but notice again verse 18,
that thou art Peter. He changed his name. That's not insignificant.
Simon is not the same meaning as Peter. You know, Simon's like a reed shaken in the wind.
Peter is like a rock. Okay, that's what rock means. I'm sorry, Peter means is rock.
Okay, so why would I literally change your name to a rock and then say you're a rock and then be like
But it has nothing to do with the path like it's just meaningless and the whole context of the verse
It just seems like you're just trying to not believe what it's saying. I believe that it is saying he's a rock now in English
We kind of don't capture that as much as other languages
And I don't usually go to other languages to talk about this, but just in this context
It's kind of important to think about
And I want to prove a few things to you.
Keep your finger here.
Go to Romans chapter number nine.
I've heard some fundamental Baptist say this.
They say, well, Peter means little, little stone.
Like just a little stone.
And Jesus is like the big stone or something.
And again, they try to get away from this being about Peter.
But there's no indication that this is like a cult
little stone or something like that.
It's just stone or rock.
Okay, just, that's what it means.
Now, stone and rock are synonyms in the Bible.
They're used interchangeably in the Bible over and over and over again, okay?
Look at Romans chapter number nine.
We're doing a Bible study, look at verse 33, okay?
We're gonna look at a lot of verses here.
As it is written,
and Rock of Offence.
And whosoever believeth on them should not be ashamed.
So Jesus Christ is described as the stumbling stone
and the Rock of Offence.
So we see stone is being used interchangeably with rock here,
and they're both about Jesus Christ.
Go, if you would, to 1 Peter chapter 2.
Go further into the New Testament towards the end.
1 Peter chapter number 2, and look at verse number 7.
1 Peter chapter number 2, just after James.
Verse number seven, this is also about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Actually, I want to start in verse six,
says, wherefore is also contained in the scripture,
we hold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone.
elect precious, and he that believeth on him should not be confounded, unto you therefore which believeth he is precious,
but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, wherein too also they were appointed."
So, verse 8,
stone of stumbling and notice rock of offense.
So again, it's the same concept, the same word in general.
It's meaning the same thing.
Go through it to John chapter one, go back now
to John chapter number one.
Jesus renames Peter in the Bible,
but he also does it in John chapter one.
And I wanna show you what the Bible says about his name.
Look at John chapter one, verse 42.
John chapter 1 verse 42 and he brought him to Jesus and when Jesus beheld him he said,
Thou art Simon. Notice this, the son of Jonah. So notice we understand that bar Jonah is what?
Son of Jonah. Hey, when you just use the Bible you can learn a lot of these words.
You don't need like some lexicon. He says thou shalt be called Cephas which is by interpretation
a stone. So again, he's changing his name to a stone.
Okay, that's what his name is being changed to.
Peter being a stone.
Go back to John chapter number,
or actually go back to Matthew first,
go back to Matthew chapter number 18.
So, if we think about some other languages
for just a second, if we think about Spanish,
which is a pretty similar language to,
to, like it's more familiar to us, a lot of us.
What is Peter's name in Spanish?
Pedro. Yeah, Pedro. Okay, and
What does Pedro mean rock or stone?
But if you think about another word in Spanish piedra
That means stone or rock. Okay, piedra, and it's the same etymology as the name Pedro
The same kind of exists in Greek.
So I'm trying to using that to try to illustrate
like what's being illustrated is kind of similar
to how it works in Greek.
In Greek, if we looked at the word Peter, it's Petros.
And if we look at the word for rock or stone,
it's Petras.
Okay, so it's pretty much the exact same as you would have in Spanish.
And again, when you're reading, if you're reading Matthew 16 verse 18 in the Greek New Testament,
the Texas Receptors' Greek New Testament, it's going to say,
Thou art Petros, and upon this Petras will I build my ecclesia, you know, my church.
And you're sitting here thinking like, it's a little bit more obvious.
other languages sometimes than in English where we see Peter and rock just
because we don't always associate the word Peter with rock but in other
languages just a tad bit clearer because of the way those words their
etymologies are more obvious to the naked eye so I'm just bringing that up
just to bring that up okay but what is what am I saying well number one Jesus
Christ is obviously the rock in this passage in one interpretation
because the church is built upon Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ is what the Bible calls
as the chief cornerstone.
We read that in 1 Peter.
It says in Ephesians chapter number two.
And we need to go there in a minute, but I'm waiting.
And so, of course, the church is built upon Jesus Christ,
but then it's also built upon Peter, in a sense,
because Peter is part of the building construction.
And Peter is the first leader.
And you see that the church being
kind of started and initiated in Acts chapter number two.
It's Peter that's the one that's standing up.
It's Peter that's, you know, kind of leading the disciples.
It's Peter that's that initial guy to kind of get the church
going and going out and preaching.
It's Peter and John that are getting arrested.
It's Peter that's going out and reaching the heathen.
He's the one that sees the vision that kind of unlocks
things for the Gentiles even.
Okay, Peter's the one that everybody kind of goes to.
Peter's the guy that even Paul looks up to.
Peter is kind of that first initial leader.
And we don't want to make that as insignificant.
And why is the Bible focused on Peter?
And why does the Bible focus on Peter's conversion?
How he was shaky, how he wasn't willing to die.
And then later he's rock solid.
He's steadfast because it's really,
he's a really important character in the Bible
and understanding his development.
So he also is that rock.
verse 19 and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. How
do you interpret that? Jesus is saying I'm giving you Peter the keys. Why would
you give him the keys? Because he's the one that's gonna build the church. Is he
not? He's part of that building construction. He's part of something.
He's been given something. What is a key? Authority.
If you think about it, it's access, it's authority,
and it's being a representation of the fact
that now Peter is being given authority from Jesus.
For what?
The church.
And the church is now going to have authority.
He says,
You know what Jesus does?
He gives authority unto His churches.
Now let's prove this.
Look at Matthew 18, verse 18.
Verily I say in you, what server ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and
what server ye shall loose on earth shall be loose in heaven.
So now it's not just limited to Peter, he's not like the Pope, where only he has a key.
What he's kind of signifying is that the church has authority.
And whatever the church decides and whatever the leadership decides, God respects those
decisions in heaven.
And so you know what when you get thrown out of church, you know what God respects that decision
When the church says hey, you're not right with the church. You're not right with the church
Because God gave authority unto the church
Go to John chapter number 20 go to John chapter number 20. Oh
I don't you lift yourselves up above the congregation. No God is the one that's saying that he's given the church authority
And it's an important mark in the Bible.
And you know what?
Whatever Peter says, goes.
I mean, whatever the leadership says, it goes.
Otherwise, you can't really have an effective organization.
You can't really accomplish things.
We need leadership.
We need authority.
We need structure.
Someone's got to have a key.
Someone's got to make decisions.
And you know what?
God gives authority under his church.
John chapter number 20.
Look what it says in verse 21.
Then said Jesus to them again peace be unto you as my father has sent me even so send I you and when he had said this
He breathed on them and sayeth unto them receive you the Holy Ghost
Whosoever sends he remit they are remittin under them and whosoever sends you retain they are retained
Now again, I'm going all the verses the cat that Catholics love these verses
But what do they mean?
We're actually explaining what they really mean not what the Catholics want them to mean
What does the Catholic want to do with these verses? They want to say oh, yeah, Peter's the Pope
He is the vicar of Christ, that's blasphemy, okay?
We are under shepherds, we are not the shepherd
and we're not in the stead of Christ.
And what do the Catholics try to do with this verse?
They try to say that the pope has the ability
to forgive sins or that you go to the priest
and you confess your sins and somehow the priest
can make some kind of atonement for your sins.
That is not what it's saying.
Now, what it is saying though,
is think about it in this context.
If someone is a railer,
and we identify that as them being a railer,
and they don't get right, and we kick them out,
well, their sins are going to remain with them.
And God's going to view them as a raler, and they have them.
But if they come and they apologize and they get right with God,
and we say, okay, we forgive it, then God forgives it.
That's what he's saying. He's basically saying,
you guys have this authority, and you know what?
As the church, if people get right, I'm going to respect that.
If they stay wrong, I'm going to respect that.
But let me tell you something. God respects his church.
And God gives authority unto his church.
And you know what?
You need to respect the authority of church.
I'm gonna prove this a little bit further.
Go if you would to Ephesians chapter two.
I wanna show you how not only is Jesus referred
to as a stone or rock.
I mean, I already proved to you that Peter was a stone.
This is his name.
Cephas, which by interpretation is a stone.
If you learned or knew other languages,
you would just for sure know he's a stone
because his name just means rock and stone
and other languages very clearly.
Ephesians chapter number two,
look towards the end of this chapter.
Verse 19,
now therefore you're no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God
and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone
in whom all the building fitly framed together
growth unto an holy temple and the Lord
and whom you also are building together
for an habitation of God through the spirit.
So of course the building of God,
the house of God is built upon Jesus Christ,
but he's just the chief cornerstone.
We then, as the apostles and prophets,
are also stones and put in the building with them
and with us, and we're part of that building construction.
And Peter is part of that construction.
And Peter was a rock where the church
was gonna then be built on.
And you see this transition in the New Testament
from the temple, from the tabernacle,
unto the church.
And who gets that started?
Where does that beginning?
It's with Peter and with the early church.
We see the church is starting getting hammered
in the Acts chapter number two, right?
They always want to say,
I want to go back to the Acts chapter number two church.
Okay, well that's with Peter, right?
Peter is that basic first leader.
He's helping them because Jesus was the leader.
He's going away. They need a leader. Who's the leader? Who's got the keys? Who's in charge? It's Peter
Okay, and Jesus put people in charge and you know, he didn't put in charge a counsel
Thou art Peter
He didn't put a council in charge.
He didn't put a bunch of deacons in charge.
He didn't put a bunch of deacon wives in charge.
He didn't put a pastor's wife in charge.
He put Peter in charge.
And you know what?
We need men to be in charge of churches.
And we need men to have authority.
And we need men to make decisions.
And you know what?
People need to respect the authority of the men in their church.
Go to Titus chapter 2.
Let's see what the Bible says.
Let's prove this even further.
This is an important point.
I'm looking for a sign well your sign is the King James Bible came from heaven. It's right here
This is all you're gonna get and if you want another sign well, you might be dead after you shop for some shoes in the alley. All right
You might have to have all your skin fall off or something. I don't want that sign. You might become dumb like Zechariahs
I don't want that sign
I don't want to be constantly arrested.
I don't want my wife to divorce me and leave me
and my life turned into a country music song
for me to figure out that the preacher was right.
You know, maybe you just believe the preacher
because it's not me, it's the Word of God.
I didn't write, this King James Bible said everything in it
before I was ever born.
How can you get mad at me for yelling what it says?
You just don't like it.
Titus chapter 2 verse 15 these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority
Let no man despise thee
You know what the Bible says you're not allowed to despise the pastor
Not allowed to hate pastors and hate men of God and hate Moses and hate Jesus and hate Peter and hate the things of God
You know what you do that and you know what God will deal with you
Don't be like that person. You know you need to have respect under the house of God and the people that God has put in charge of the house
Let's go back to Matthew chapter number 16.
I know we're going to a lot of places in the Bible,
but I think they really help us understand these chapters.
And you know what? These chapters have been abused.
Is Matthew 16 verse 18 about Jesus? Yes, it is.
But you know, it's not only about Jesus.
And we don't want to strip away the whole meaning
that this passage has. I mean, think about it.
Why would we say in verse 17, obviously it's about Peter?
Verse 18, nothing to do with Peter.
You know, it's just Peter, Peter, Peter from one layer.
And then we look at a different context, different angle.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
From another angle, you can look at the doctrine of the Son of God.
And upon that rock, we have the church being built.
Hey, I like all of those, but let's not discard one
just because the Catholics believe it or whatever.
You know, I'm not Catholic. I don't believe anything Catholic.
And yet I can still understand how Peter was that rock
that the church was built upon.
He was given the keys of the kingdom of heaven and you know what?
He had some authority and a power and if I was in the New Testament and Jesus went up to heaven
I would say hey Peter what you want me to do?
Hey, Peter's mad at me. I'm gonna try and fix it
You know, I'm not gonna sit here and just buck at authority that God has put on this earth and say no
No, Peter's not the rock Jesus of the rock. So therefore I don't even have to go to church anymore
It's a house church movement
They say, like, Peter's not the pope,
so therefore, church doesn't have any authority.
And they just basically just discard church,
discard authority, no one's in charge.
You know, that is foolishness, it is nonsense,
and that is not how God built churches.
God built churches with strong leaders.
And you never see anything accomplished
with these house church people anyways.
Just heresy and flat earth and nonsense.
Verse 20.
Then charge these disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ
From that time forth began Jesus to show in his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things the elders and
Chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day, you know
Some people get confused, but the Bible is really clear Jesus told them the gospel. I mean this is explicit
He's just like, hey, I'm going to go in there.
They're going to betray me.
Someone's going to betray me in this group.
The chief priests are going to attack me and falsely accuse me.
They're going to turn me over.
And I'm going to be crucified, which
whether he's explained that in detail or not.
As far as how that works, they would realize that the Romans would be in charge of that
because the Romans are the ones who crucified.
The Jews stone people.
They just take you out of the city and they stone you to death.
To be crucified, you would know that it was the Romans who did it.
Which is crazy to think about, like how did the Bible know that the Romans would be in
charge to be able to crucify him when the execution method of the Old Testament was
but it was cursed at him that hangeth on a tree.
I mean, that's just incredible.
I mean, the Bible knew about this thousands of years
before the Roman Empire ever existed.
And the Romans are the ones that came up with crucifixion.
I mean, think about the divine actions of God
for someone to invent crucifixion
and then not realizing that that was gonna be a key role
in the gospel itself.
It could have been a reprobate even.
I don't know.
It could have been just some evil person just dreaming up some horrible way to kill somebody,
not even realizing that that was going to be used as the way for Christ to literally
pay for all of our sins on the cross.
And you know, all things work together for good to them that love God.
You know, I was explaining this to somebody today.
I said, because we were talking about this year and we're saying, man, it's a busy year.
And I said, yeah.
I said, we're doing a lot of soloing this year,
a lot of events, a lot of missions, trips.
And I said, you know, it's funny because
that was not my plan for this year.
My plan for this year was to be really conservative
and do a lot less events,
to save as much money as possible
because I was hoping to work on getting a building later.
But in in August, September there was like all this drama and all those problems and
You know I said, you know, what's the point and getting a big building with a bunch of people that suck?
You know it'd be better to just get the burden in the hand of just like let's just invest a bunch of money
And it's all winning right now and get a bunch of people saved
And so I just planned just and again the attitude was a little off
I think I didn't want people to just stay discouraged and frustrated and focus on the wrong things
I'm like, let's just focus on soul winning because we know that's right and let's just do that
So I just planned tons and tons of events
What's it's just funny because this is like and then we've gotten tons of people say I mean we had so much success
And I'm like I wouldn't have done that. I didn't want to do that and the reason why I did that
I didn't want to go through that again
But it's just funny how that horrible evil affliction
and crazy drama and problems end up causing me
and our church to do way more soul-inning
than we would have done.
And then now in hindsight, I'm just thinking,
like, well, you know, all things work together for good,
to them that love God, to them that are called
according to purpose.
And you know what, someone is going to heaven
because we went through all that.
That probably wouldn't have because we just decided to do much more soul winning and it's not just me only
Yes, a lot of my friends are doing way more soul winning. They would have done if we hadn't gone through that evil
And you know what? Just trust the process just trust God's at work
Just realize even when we go through a trial that doesn't make sense like why did you lead me up to the to the Red Sea?
This seems like we're doomed
But then he just parts the Red Sea, he walks through,
and you're like, okay, cool.
And you killed all the people behind us.
Hmm, you know, I don't want to be the person that's behind.
I just want to trust in the Lord.
And you know what, the gospel is one of those things
where the disciples are discouraged,
it doesn't make sense to them, but you know what?
Obviously they would have never said,
in hindsight, they're not like,
oh, I'm disappointed he did this.
The gospel's great, but in the moment,
it made no sense to them, they didn't like it,
they didn't want it to happen, and it wasn't a good event.
They didn't enjoy it.
It was the worst time in their life.
But you know what? It was necessary.
And sometimes we have to go through necessary evils
for God to drag us to the other side.
And then we end up accomplishing his will somehow.
Verse 22, then Peter took him and began to rebuke him,
saying, be it far from thee, Lord,
this shall not be unto thee.
Peter doesn't want this to happen.
Peter rebukes Jesus.
verse 23, but he turned and said unto Peter,
Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me,
for thou savest not the things that be of God,
but those things that be of men."
Now the word rebuke, I think every other context,
it's really clear, it's always about something that's true.
Rebuke is true, railing is false.
Why it uses the word rebuke here is,
I think it's just trying to help us understand them.
Peter's mind said he thought what he was saying was right.
He was really genuine and sincere,
but in reality he was actually kind of railing.
He was actually wrong because what he said was of Satan.
But in his mind, he's trying to rebuke Jesus.
He's trying to tell him that he's wrong.
But you know what?
He's actually being influenced by the devil
and he doesn't savor the things that be of God
but those that be of men.
And we need to make sure that we're not savoring
the things of this world,
that we're savoring the things of God.
You know, the Bible talks about love not this world
and not the things that are in the world.
For all the things in the world are not of God.
I mean, you basically, let's just read that
because I think we need it.
First, John chapter number two.
Tells us explicitly not to love the world.
Verse 15 first John chapter 2 it's it's toward the end of the New Testament verse 15
Love not the world not the things that are in the world of any man love the world
The love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes
And the pride of life is not of the father
But is of the world and the world passes away in the lust thereof
But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever so according to the Bible
We need to make sure that we're not loving this world
Loving the things of this world loving the pride of life, you know, they don't want Jesus to die
and be taken from them, probably from pride.
Because they're kind of the talk of the town.
They go everywhere.
Everybody's excited.
There's these crowds.
It's fun.
It's exciting.
If Jesus dies and it's all over, you know, they were kind of hoping, like, man, we're
going to come in and take over, but then it's like, no.
And I think even us, we could get this attitude of like,
man, we just want to become the cool, popular church.
We want to be the next gateway.
Everybody loves us.
And then the whole town likes us,
and then we're just, everybody's, our buddy.
But you know, it's just probably not going to happen.
Yeah.
And I say probably with a really big emphasis on not gonna happen, okay, but I'm just saying like
You know and there's nothing wrong in a sense of just like wanting to be successful and have good things
But just you know if you're here
For us to be really popular and well-liked and lots of positive things to happen
You're just not savoring the things that be of God. You're probably saving the things of men
And you have to realize that we're probably,
you know, by being here,
you know what you're probably signing up for?
Grief, sadness, disappointment, bad friends,
people who stab you in the back for no reason.
Somebody in here is probably gonna lie about you sometime.
Someone's gonna take advantage of you,
someone's gonna rip you off,
someone's gonna do you evil.
I'm like, man, this doesn't sound like fun at all.
It's not.
But you know we're not here to savor the things that be of men
We're here to savor the things that be of God and we're not here because we want those to happen
We're here because we want people to get saved
And we want our families to be raised and love the Word of God.
And we ourselves want to serve God and be pleasing unto God
and be a partaker of Christ's sufferings.
And you know what?
Church is not, what do I get out of it?
It's what can I put into it?
Quit having this stupid attitude of,
oh man, church didn't give me all the things I wanted.
We never were going to.
I am not here to give you things for your carnal life.
This church is not for you to make friends and have a social life and for me to just pat you on the back and to be your best buddy
No, we're here to serve Jesus Christ
And you know what if you do anything for this church or people it should not be for you to go around and brag about it
It should because you just love people and not to not to act like oh man look what I did
Well, then you weren't doing it for the right reason
You're savoring the things that be of men not the things that be of God
You know what? If you have friends here, that's a cherry on top, not the reason you're here.
If good things happen under you, if you get blessings, that's a cherry on top.
You don't come here to see what you're going to get out of it.
You come here to serve, and you know what? You're going to be disappointed if you don't have that attitude.
If you go to church and you're not there to serve, you will always be disappointed.
We will never give you enough love. We'll never give you enough charity.
I'll never give you enough time. And let me tell you something.
The more you get to know me, the more you realize that I'm not that great.
The more you get to know me or anybody,
the more you realize.
The grass is always greener on the other side.
You know why?
Because from a far away, things look a lot better
than they do up close.
And for some reason, imperfections
are magnified by proximity.
Imperfections are magnified by proximity.
The closer you get to someone, the more you'll realize they're imperfections.
The more you get to know me, the more you'll realize Pastor Shelley has a lot of problems.
And Pastor Shelley is just a normal center that has issues and is not perfect.
And you know, just like grass. From a far away, your neighbor's grass looks pretty cool,
but then you go and you actually stand in the yard and you look and you'll see holes,
roots of weeds and bare spots and yellow spots and you're thinking like,
You know and then the Christian life you might think like oh, man, I'm gonna go to this church
Or I'm gonna go hang out this this pastor. It's gonna be great
But you know the more you get to know things the less cool they are familiarity breeds contempt and
A lot of times people don't understand what they have that's like I need to preach old sermon on that but
You get the message at the end of the day, you know
When when Jesus says hey, you're gonna suffer things are gonna suffer. We need to just say like hey, that's okay
You need to get his message.
Don't be like Peter and just say like,
no, I don't want anything negative in my life.
We have to be willing to accept some negativity, right?
What does Jesus say?
Then Jesus said to the disciples,
if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
For what does a man profit if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the son of man shall come in the glory of his father
with his angels and then shall he reward every man
according to his works.
You know, we will be awarded according to works one day.
And you know, you can say, oh man, I lost my life.
I lost my job, but you know what?
God will give you a new one.
Hey, you lost your life, well, God will give you a new one.
You lost some of your family, well, God will give you a new one.
You lost some of your friends, God will give you some new ones.
You lost your goals or your ambition.
God will give you new goals and new ambition.
And so, we need to make sure that we're savoring the things that be of God and not of men.
What are the things of men?
Being prideful, rich, successful, everybody likes you.
And what are you trading that for?
No one likes you, you're not rich, you're not making a lot of friends, people backstab,
you attack, you lie about you, you're basically just hated of this world.
But you know what you get in return for that?
lands and houses and spiritual brethren and spiritual awards and you know what you get it all in heaven, too
You get in this life and the next with persecutions you get all those rewards with persecutions
But we have to be willing to accept some persecutions
It's like everybody wants to look at the the guy that's really ripped
The guy that's really athletic and really in shape and they're like I want that
But you know what they don't want is they don't want at all the pain from working out
But you know what if you want to look like that guy spiritually you got to go through the pain
You got to go through the reps and go through the consistency. You know in this life
There's gonna be you know a steadfast Baptist church
It's a it's a grueling machine, man
And it's not because I wanted to be you know, I believe it or not. I hate drama more than anybody
I'm the least drama type person.
I don't even wanna talk about drama.
I don't wanna deal with things.
I don't wanna get mad at anybody.
But let me tell you something, I will if I have to.
And everybody knows that.
But you know they think that that's my personality it's not I want to be gracious. I want to be kind
I want to go through life without having any problems. I'm a peacemaker
I'm someone that is a people pleaser, but let me tell you something if you come after me if you come after my church members
I will defend them
and I will defend the Word of God,
and I will do what's necessary,
and I will not let men despise me,
and I will rule with authority in this church,
and I will deal with issues,
no matter how ugly they are,
no matter how difficult they are,
and so, you know, don't mess with the house of God.
I worked for a boss,
and he said this, and I liked it,
even though I don't agree with banking.
But he just said,
he said, I'm the best person to loan
money like I'm the best person to get money from and I'm the worst person to
owe money from and you know in some ways you know that's the right attitude
it's like hey and that's how God is God's like man you show yourself merciful
also myself merciful you show yourself forward I'll show myself forward
And we need some gumption.
We need some men with some strength
that are willing to stand up and fight when they have to.
But you know what, let's be gracious
and give the benefit out.
But boy, you don't get to lie about me
and rail about me for six months
and just skate on free.
I'll come back.
I will hit back eventually.
You don't like it, but you know what?
That's your fault.
Verse 28,
Verily I say unto you,
there be some standing here,
which shall not taste of death,
till they see the Son of Man coming.
This changes the context completely.
It almost just like goes in the next chapter.
So I'm not really spending much time on it,
but I'll explain it next week.
But what's the point that we learned?
We need to believe the Word of God.
You don't need a sign.
You already have the text.
But let me tell you something.
You know, God will often give us signs anyways.
And boy, when you have the text and signs,
you really better believe it.
You're at you're begging for it if you don't and God hey when they didn't believe that core in them
Winning the hell he killed another 14,000 people. He wanted to kill all of them. I
Mean God is not a respecter of persons. We are dust in a sight. Do not mess with our God
He is a consuming fire
We need to have fear and trembling when it comes to the God of the Bible
Do not mess with this text. Do not mess with churches. Do not mess with the men of God. God will come down on you
We don't need to some sign. I already got all the signs. I need and I already got the text
I need let us have a fear and a reverence for the things of God. Let's close in prayer
Thank you heavenly father so much for giving us the church
Which is purchased the blood of Jesus Christ
Thank you for giving authority under the church so that we could accomplish a great work for you
I pray that we would have a fear and a trembling when it comes to the things of God.
I pray that you would increase our faith, that you would help us to not feel like we have to see things for ourselves or have some extra proof,
but rather we would just trust the Word of God.
We'd believe the Word of God.
I pray that He would help us to just aid men of God,
that we would help good churches,
that we'd have a good attitude towards church,
that we'd come here to serve and to see what we can give,
that we'd be willing to lose our lives
for the gospel's sake.
And I pray that those that would attack our church,
those that would hate our church,
those that would do evil unto his church,
that you would just, you know, wake them up.
And if they won't be waking up, just destroy them.
Just don't respect them at all.
And I pray that those that have done wrong,
that they would have a heart to change,
that they would get right.
But if not, that you would just take them out of the way
and have a special punishment unto them.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
373, so send IU.
Page 373, so send IU.
Let's sing it out to the Lord on the first.
So sad night.
You